Documentary festival to feature local and
global films

By Jenn Watt

Published March 8, 2017

From war zones to the offices of the New York Times to the early days of a little place called Dysart, the documentaries at this year's Doc(k) Day in Haliburton offer incredible breadth during the one-day event.

This
year's film fest,organized by Those Other Movies, is Saturday, April 8, at the Northern Lights
Performing Arts Pavilion in Haliburton Village and starts with local
historian Kim Emmerson's film Dysart 150: The Movie.

Emmerson
travelled to England searching for information about the founding of
Dysart et al, which is celebrating its sesquicentennial this year.
Filmed by Kim and Linda Emmerson, the documentary introduces viewers
to the region's roots in a brief 25-minute piece that educates and
entertains.

After
looking at the local angle, festival attendees will soon move to the
global with Obit, a 93-minute doc about the writers at the New York
Times and how they go about summarizing the lives of the recently
departed.

After
lunch, Cameraperson, a selection from the 2016 Sundance Film
Festival, will be screened. The documentary is a collection of
footage from a lifetime behind the camera for cinematographer Kirsten
Johnson. “Whether she's shooting undercover footage on the front
lines of the War on Terror, or chasing down French philosopher
Jacques Derrida on the streets of Manhattan, Johnson's cinematic
encounters are endlessly engrossing,” the HotDocs website reads.

The Doc(k) Day
wraps up with two films that include guests. At 4:15 p.m. What Lies
Below will be shown followed by the Q and A with Lawrence Gunther,
who holds an master's degree from York University in environmental
studies. Gunther was featured in the film, which explores our
connection to the underwater world. It chronicles his travels across
Canada speaking to people about their local fisheries. Gunther is
blind and brings with him a different perspective on the the world
beneath the waves for those who can't see it.

The day wraps up
with In Pursuit of Peace, a doc on four Canadians pursuing peace
mediation and negotiation in war zones around the world including
South Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Iraq and others. Director
Garry Beitel will be attending the screening for a Q and A afterward.

Passes for the
day are $30. Individual tickets, where available, are $10 each.
Tickets are available at the door. To reserve a pass for the day,
contact Lisa Kerr:kerrfamily@cottagecountry.net.

SCHEDULE

10:00
am: DYSART 150 – THE MOVIE – 23 minutes: Haliburton,
Carnarvon, Dysart, and Stanhope: travel with Kim and Linda Emmerson
to jolly olde England to find the roots of the local heritage. Who
knew there was a connection between Dysart - Downton Abbey and King
Tutankhamen?

10:30
am: OBIT –
93 minutes: Within
the storied walls of The
New York Times,
a team of writers is entrusted with reflecting upon the lives of
luminaries, icons, and world leaders of our day. The writers' stories
are juxtaposed snuggly beside the details of their subjects to create
an exceptionally tight, often hilarious film.

1:30
pm: CAMERAPERSON
- 102 minutes: Cameraperson
draws our attention not just to what we're seeing, but to how we're
seeing it. It encourages us to wonder how a camera operator
negotiates personal space in tense, intimate, emotionally fraught
situations.

4:15
pm: WHAT LIES BELOW
– 80 minutes: "...we
have to sort of re-examine our relationship to the water, and with
the aquatic world so we're not impacting it so severely as we are
now," Lawrence Gunther draws
on his perspective to explore and share what others aren’t able to
see taking place beneath the waves. A blind graduate from York
University’s master’s program in environmental studies, Gunther
is a highly regarded speaker, writer and radio host on the subject of
fishing and Canada’s aquatic ecosystems. He will be present for a
Q&A after the film.

7:30
pm: IN PURSUIT OF PEACE– 87 minutes: Director Garry Beitel
follows four Canadians on the front lines of international peace
initiatives in South Sudan, Turkey, Congo and Iraq. We experience the
challenges of their work, exploring how their peace building
strategies are put to the test in this new 21st century paradigm of
conflict resolution. Beitel will be
available for a Q&A after the film.

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